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Delbert Ealy 245 mm O1 gyuto review

I started working with Del on these over a month ago at the request of a mutual friend. This knife is the culmination of several drafts and improvements in the consistency and fit and finish are still being made.I can honestly say that Del has finally made an excellent knife. It is 2 mm thick at the spine over the heel and tapers slowly until it reaches the secondary bevel (sharpenersí terminology) whereupon it tapers dramatically to an exceedingly thin point. The knife is on the stiff side, similar to DTITK or Carter esp considering it is quite thin. It owes its stiffness to the height of the blade at the heel ~60 mm making it the tallest knife Iíve considered adding to my arsenal. While it is about as tall as a Takeda, I much prefer the feel of Delís knife. Delís O1 at 61 hrc is well known for easily taking an excellent edge and it holding quite well. It cuts very well at the tip in this incarnation, rivaling some of the best knives Iíve used and the heel feels solid and is able to handle tough jobs with virtually no release issues. The handle is just like Delís other handles, very unique to Del and very comfortable. I personally like the darker, more dramatic redwood burl piece on this knife better than most but thatís just me.What I didnít like was the left-handed grind, lol. Slices released perfectly when I cut potatoes left handed in careful, even slices but stuck quite well on the right side making the same cuts. I was surprised because 4 of 5 of the other drafts he ground were about even or slightly right-handed and released well from both sides. The knife was a full cm shorter than I specified, as well. The latest knife had the spine and choil eased as opposed to rounded and a small amount of HT scale (or other blackish material) was still visible in some places. There were a couple of holes in the board contact which also made sharpening impossible. I did fix this and the knife was passed on to a very happy left-handed individual. In conclusion, Del has officially made an excellent or even outstanding performing knife by my own personal standards. As he becomes more comfortable with this type of grind, I expect his blades will be more consistent. Iím looking forward to owning one in the future.

Damn you TK59! I was going to write a review of this knife myself. I am the lucky left-handed knife knit that chanced into it. I guess I get to do the long use/edge retention review. I will say that it feels very substantial in hand, the handle is awesome (thanks again TK59!!), and initial cutting impressions are fantastic; awesome tip, very thin behind the edge, and Carter-esque blade profile.

I hope so, in the rush I forgot to take any myself. Those are worse than any I have taken. Here are a couple from another knife with the same materials, but a slightly lighter colored redwood.
Del

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[url=http://www.ealyknives.com/][SIGPIC][/SIGPIC][/url]
Laminated metals specialist, Kitchen knife and gadget maker
[url]www.ealyknives.com[/url]
[url]www.mokume-jewelry.net[/url]
"Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life"

Oh, and I take exception to the smart dude from Cal Tech. He should be smart enough not to talk about something he has no clue talking about.

He would be just as lost in a room full of cooks as I would be in room full of academics. And you can bet I'm not going to try to tell them about physics.

Microscopes are GOOD. As for the dude, I just couldn't believe he could take Heijis and Carters and a pretty darn good DTITK, etc. to a pile of onions and think they perform like a $20 cleaver from the chinese market down the road... Seriously, I would take the knife and it would just about drop through a huge onion and he'd pick up the same knife and the same onion and wedge it half way through over and over and over again.

Microscopes are GOOD. As for the dude, I just couldn't believe he could take Heijis and Carters and a pretty darn good DTITK, etc. to a pile of onions and think they perform like a $20 cleaver from the chinese market down the road... Seriously, I would take the knife and it would just about drop through a huge onion and he'd pick up the same knife and the same onion and wedge it half way through over and over and over again.

User error. Technique counts for some too. I assume at least 99% of the people have competent knife skills at least.

The thing that really irks me (and many self-proclaimed knife knuts are guilty of this too) is people that develope skill and technique for one particular type / style of knife and then try to use evey other knife that they pick up the same way. It's like learning how to use a katana and then picking up a fencing foil and saying "oh this is crap, because it doesn't work like my katana". No, your skills with that blade are just crap; learn how to fence. The craftsman that blames the tool is usually lacking skill and creativity.

Yeah, it sounds like Del's newest creation is more along the lines of what's currently in vogue on here, but I don't think that it means that he "finally made a good knife", it just means that he made a different style blade than the thin, flexy stuff that he made before (which seemed to be a very popular style during the blade thinning fad a short while ago).

I'm sure the new blade is awesome though and I bet everyone else is with me in wanting to see some more pics and video of it in action.